Ex-Black Stars defender Shilla Illiasu is a now big-time maize farmer in Tamale

Shilla Alhassan Illiasu a member of the 2006 FIFA World Cup squad has taken to farming after his football career came to an end.

The former King Faisal and Asante Kotoko defender who is a maize farmer in Tamale in the Northern Region of Ghana has shared how he started his farming adventure.

"Before you invest in farming, you just don’t wake up and say I want to enter into farming, you go to the experts," Shilla Illiasu told TV3.

"What I know is that when you plan you don’t fail. From the beginning, if you fail you don’t plan.

"You know farming is our backbone. We have people around who have the knowledge in farming that you can go to- CSIR Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research and the other one from Nyankpala, so we spoke on the investment I am going to do.

"I also didn’t neglect them, so I followed their processes and God being so good we were able to meet our target".

Shilla Illiasu was one of the local players who represented Ghana in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.

He excelled and managed to earn a regular place in the team during the Mundial, after having sat on the bench in the Black Stars opener against Italy, but he played against the Czech Republic, the USA, and Brazil.

Illiasu was signed by a Russian topflight outfit at the time Saturn FC for a fee of around 1 million euros.

However, his career took a nosedive after sustaining a career-threatening injury which became chronic and that was the end of his illustrious career.

Ex-Black Stars defender Shilla Illiasu is a now big-time maize farmer in Tamale (video) pic.twitter.com/q7qIyQTlwv

— Gh Football Stats (@ghfootballstats) July 8, 2020